A document (Patent Document 1) related to the present invention shows a liquid crystal display element in a normally black mode (i.e., the mode in which a screen is displayed in black when no voltage is applied) without using a black mask (i.e., a light shielding layer provided between pixels).
The liquid crystal display element includes, between a pair of transparent substrates, active matrix liquid crystal cells including a liquid crystal layer in a VA mode (i.e., the mode in which liquid crystal molecules are aligned perpendicular to a substrate), a pair of polarizing plates arranged with the liquid crystal cells interposed therebetween, two λ/4 plates, each of which is arranged between one of the polarizing plates and the liquid crystal cells.
By applying a voltage to the liquid crystal cells, the liquid crystal molecules lie down and are aligned in the horizontal direction. In order to keep the alignment directions of the liquid crystal molecules uniform, rubbed vertical alignment films are formed on the inner surfaces of the pair of transparent substrates to be parallel to each other in opposite directions. However, no alignment division is performed.
As a technique for improving viewing angle characteristics, alignment division is known, in which each pixel is divided into regions having different alignment directions.